GT-LPG MAX℠ - A Technology based on Top Dividing Wall Column to Recover LPG Product

Refinery off gas is a mixture of hydrogen and hydrocarbons coming from various units within the refinery, pooled together to be used as a fuel for heating purposes. The fuel gas contains valuable components like propane, which can provide additional revenue to the refinery. The economics of LPG recovery fluctuates with  LPG pricing and energy cost. GT-LPG Max^SM provides a cost-effective solution for recovering LPG product using a novel process concept of absorption plus distillation within the same fractionating vessel. The technology is well suited for low-pressure refinery off gas as well as associated natural gas streams. The process is capable of recovering 99% propane without the use of refrigeration. The process is based on avoiding thermodynamic inefficiencies in conventional absorption and distillation columns by incorporating the unit operations in a single top dividing wall column. The feed side of the top dividing wall column recovers the C₃₊ components from the fuel gas through absorption. The other side of top dividing wall column uses distillation to split between C₃ and C₄components to produce LPG product.

The presentation will cover the following topics:

1)    Economics of LPG recovery

2)    Available processes for LPG recovery

3)    Concept of GT-LPG Max^SM as subset of advanced distillation systems

4)    GT-LPG Max^SM case studies

5)    Application areas for GT-LPG Max^SM.